The subject disclosure is directed to the computer arts, computer network arts, device management arts, operational semantic arts, and the like.
Computer networks generally utilize a variety of different peripheral devices, e.g. printers, scanners, facsimile machines, all-in-one machines, etc. Typically, such networks have multifunction peripheral devices (MFDs) capable of performing several types of document processing and production services. These MFDs may be of one particular make and model, but commonly devices from different manufactures or different models from the same manufacturer are used. A problem facing the management of a heterogeneous fleet of multifunction devices (MFD) is that the specific protocol operations required to accomplish a task (e.g., disable a port, get usage counters) vary between MFDs.
The exact protocol sequence is often not explicitly available. It is often incorporated into management tools supplied by the MFD manufacturer. In other cases, the exact protocol sequence may be documented in proprietary, or public, specifications. There is an additional complexity to this in that the MFD firmware implementer may not strictly adhere to the specification. When workarounds for these deficiencies are found they may be either documented some other place or accommodated in an update to the management tool.
In other words, for networks comprising multiple and different devices, traditional device management systems are inefficient in managing those multiple devices due to the management system's dependence on separate device management tools (per each device). This is especially the case in performing maintenance on the network. A system and method for responding to these above-identified issues and integrating such a response into a single framework are needed.
There remains a need for a system and method for generating a device management profile.